As we finish up the last few weeks of remote learning I've learned two things: 1. A home office with only one chair is a joke, and 2. One does not need a desk, or a chair, to WFH.

With the four of us working from home, in and out of zoom meetings, team meetings and conference calls, we're fighting for real estate in this apartment. By now we've staked-out our territory. Audrey works from our closet, snuggled in with Rocco during his mid-day nap (I've had to wake her up many-a-times as she's fallen asleep in the middle of class). Chloe has taken up the entire desk because she prefers two monitors, her Surface, 500 post-its, all the sharpies, expo pens -- her setup looks like an office supply room. At least I know where to find a pen when I need one. Max is a floater, working on foot throughout the entire apartment, hallway, patios. Thank goodness the office is now open. As for me, well, it really doesn't matter since I'm not getting any real work done anyway. However, every once in a while I'll sneak into my empty bathtub to browse Pinterest and envy these dreamy WFH spaces.

I'm honestly annoyed with myself for waiting this long to try one of these meal boxes. I (used to) love cooking. But now that I'm cooking seven meals a day for four different people, I'm losing my mind. Now I look forward to my Wednesday deliveries of quick meal kits from HelloFresh. It's 30 minutes of mindless cooking that's a nice relief after a long day of fighting with my kids to do their remote learning classwork and yelling at them to turn off the tv. Now I'm addicted to how easy this is and I'm afraid I'm never going back. I'm curious, anyone tried Blue Apron, Home Chef, Sun Basket???

I kill all house plants, every time. But that never stops me from taking a home a Trader Joes herb in a pot every week. Now that I'm not venturing out anymore I thought might try one of these indoor grow kits. Especially since now I have all the time in the world. All the reviews say this kit is super easy and seedlings start to appear in about a week. So maybe by the time we're out of this self-imposed quarantine I'll have an entire herb garden just like the one on the box!

Puzzles have come a long way since I used to work on them as a kid. aI used to spend summers and long weekends helping my Aunt put together a puzzle. She would always have one out on her dining room table and family would come and go, putting one piece in at a time. With the kids being older now I can get away with leaving a 1000-piece puzzle out on our dining room table and work on it throughout the week. Cloudberries + BetterCo are a couple of my favorite brands.

Puzzle boxes are starting to stack up in my house. I was thinking there has to be a puzzle swap group, like a book exchange club, right?! Maybe after all this is over I can look into exchanging puzzles with someone.

5. My “20-minutes of Silence”

Once-a-day I try to get a moment of silence. Ideally it includes all of this...while taking a bath:

Noise canceling headphones: an absolute necessity. Even if I'm locked in my bathroom to get a moment of peach, I can still hear the kids screaming at each other from their room. Noise canceling headphones will change your life Mama.

Epsom salt bath soak

Bevvy

and an Audible book. Might I suggest:

I'm taking any and all recommendations to keep me busy and help me survive these next six *crying* weeks.